


What's In A Name?

by bouquetofwhoopsiedaisies



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alien Culture, Gen, Humor, Names, The Blades already basically adopted him this does not help change their idea he's little and cute, but I brought some canon-dead Blades back to life, set sometime when Keith goes to work with the Blade of Marmora in s4, the Galra are curious about the meaning of Keith's name
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-23
Updated: 2017-12-23
Packaged: 2019-02-19 00:31:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,532
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13111917
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bouquetofwhoopsiedaisies/pseuds/bouquetofwhoopsiedaisies
Summary: “What is ‘Keith’?”  Kolivan asked one evening.Keith looked up, blinking in confusion.  “I’m Keith.”“Yes, but what is ‘Keith’?”  Kolivan pressed.“Well, as far as I know, mostly human, and some Galra.”  He really thought Kolivan already knew this.  He had been there when Keith’s knife changed form, indicating that he had Galra blood.  How much, none of them knew.Kolivan huffed, looking impatient.  “The word.  ‘Keith’.  What does it mean, in your language?”(The Blades get curious about the name of their smallest member.  Pidge does some hacking to find out the surprising answer)





	What's In A Name?

**Author's Note:**

> Dedicated to the folks in the Cotton Candy & Lion Pride discord server, where the conversation about names spawned into this fic idea.

“What is ‘Keith’?”  Kolivan asked one evening.  Kolivan, Keith, Antok, and Thace had come aboard the Castle of Lions to deliver some sensitive information regarding their latest infiltration mission, that Kolivan hadn’t trusted to transmit even through a secure communications channel.  Following the debriefing, though, they realized that the solar flares had blocked their path back to the base, so they were forced to wait until they opened up again to leave.  They had been sitting around the lounge with the rest of the paladins when Kolivan asked his question.

Keith looked up, blinking in confusion.  “I’m Keith.”  

“Yes, but what is ‘ _ Keith _ ’?”  Kolivan pressed.  

“Well, as far as I know, mostly human, and some Galra.”  He really thought Kolivan already knew this.  He had been there when Keith’s knife changed form, indicating that he had Galra blood.  How much, none of them knew.  

Kolivan huffed, looking impatient.  “The word.  ‘Keith’.  What does it mean, in your language?”  

“What?”  Keith blinked, confused.

“All Galra names have special meaning, either in Galra language or the language of one’s sire, if it is not Galra.”  Thace explained.  “Each one is special to the individual.  In fact, names are not bestowed until the first decaphoebe has passed, so as to be sure that the name will suit the personality of the person.”

“‘Kolivan’ means ‘level-headed’,” Kolivan added.  “‘Antok’ means ‘strength of a thousand’.  ‘Thace’ means ‘hidden dagger’.  ‘Keith’ is obviously not a Galran name.  What does it mean, in your language?”

“‘Hot-head’.”  Lance piped up from over in the corner.  

Keith shot him a pointed glare.  Sarcasm didn’t always go over well with aliens, probably lost in the castle-ship’s translation system, and he didn’t need the Blades thinking his name actually meant ‘hot-head’.  He turned back to Kolivan.  “I don’t know.  I don’t think it has a meaning; it’s just a name.”  

Antok crossed his arms and let out a displeased rumble.  “All names have meaning.”

“I don’t think people on Earth place quite the same weight on names as Galra,” Shiro offered.  “Parents do put a lot of thought into them, but names are often chosen before the baby is even born.  People go by nicknames and other names with little trouble.  And you can legally change your name, if you’re unhappy with it.”

“I go by Pidge, but it doesn’t mean anything.”  Pidge added.  “It’s just a nickname my brother gave me, and it stuck.”  

“And I’m named after Sir Lancelot, King Arthur’s most famous and handsome knight, which fits my natural charm and good looks.”  Lance pointed to himself with his thumb smugly.

“Didn’t Lancelot have an affair with the queen that started a civil war that ended King Arthur’s reign?”  Pidge said flatly, fingers flying over the keys of her laptop.  

“Oh look, that does suit you.”  Keith muttered.  

Lance growled at him.  “Alright, then, what does ‘Keith’ mean?”

“I don’t know.”  Keith repeated.  “My dad never mentioned it, I never knew my mom, and I never bothered to look it up before.  It’s just a name.  As far as I know, there isn’t any meaning.”  

“All names have some meaning, even if it is ancient and forgotten by many.”  Kolivan said.  “One does not simply call something as treasured as offspring by a collection of wordless syllables.”  

“If there is an older meaning, I don’t know it.”  Keith sighed.  “And I still don’t have an answer.”

“It’s a masculine name, derived from a Scottish surname of a place name meaning ‘large woods’ or ‘forest’.”  Pidge spoke up, looking down at her laptop screen.  

“How… did you get that information?”  Shiro asked, confused.  

“Hacked into the satellites orbiting Earth to get into the world wide web.”  Pidge said.  “It’s slow as heck, but considering it’s coming across billions of light-years of distance, the loading speed is not too shabby.  Still can’t load videos, though.”  She tapped the mousepad.  “Ooh, this is neat.  You have a family crest.”  

“Why does he get a family crest?!  He doesn’t even have a family!”  Lance protested.  

“ _ Lance _ !”  Hunk hissed, elbowing his friend.  

“Well, there’s a family crest for the Scottish surname Keith.”  Pidge drummed her fingers on the couch while she waited for the page to load.  

“So are we assuming his name is Keith Keith, now?”  Hunk asked.

“ _ Keith Keith _ !”  Lance burst out laughing, clutching his stomach.  “He’s the Moon Moon of people!”

“My name is not Keith Keith!”  Keith sputtered.  “And I’m not Scottish!  ...As far as I know.”  He really didn’t know anything about his family history, after all.  Human and Galra, that’s all he knew.  He wasn’t even sure how much; half?  A quarter?  Enough to have a blade, not enough to look anything other than human.

“Then what is your last name?”  Hunk asked.  “Keith what?”

“It’s Keith--”

“Hey look, even the crest is mostly red!”  Pidge exclaimed, turning the laptop around so they could all see the image.  Red and white stylized vines made up the background for a knight’s helmet above a red and yellow striped banner.  There was a small stag’s head above the helmet, and above the crest, a banner reading ‘Veritas vincit’.

“I think that means ‘truth wins’.”  Hunk said, looking at it.  

“Hm,” Kolivan looked thoughtful.  “A suitable enough name, I suppose.  A bit odd in phrasing, but it isn’t Galra, so that is not unexpected.” 

“I think that’s the motto of the Keith family, not the meaning.”  Shiro said.  

“Which doesn’t matter, because it’s not my last name, it’s my first.”  Keith pointed out.  

“We can still use it for etymology, though.”  Pidge said, scrolling down.  “Ooh, this one says the name could be derived from either the place Keith in Scotland, or originated from a nickname derived from the Middle High German word…” she paused.  “How do you pronounce an ‘i’ with a long bar over the top of it?”  

Shiro crossed his arms, looking up as he thought about it.  “A long ‘ee’ sound?  At least in some older romanized Japanese.”  

“Or it could be a regular ‘i’ sound, just longer.”  Hunk said.  “It depends on the language, and I don’t know enough about Middle High German to make a guess on it.”

Pidge shrugged.  “Well, anyway… it could be derived from the word  _ kīt _ , meaning ‘sprout’ or ‘offspring’.”  

“ _ Sprout _ ?!”  Lance burst out laughing, nearly falling out of his seat.  “Your name is sprout!”

“It’s not sprout!”  Keith bristled.  He would rather take the place from Scotland over that.  Meanwhile, the Blades were looking at each other in astonishment.  

“Kolivan…” Thace said quietly.  

“Yes, I know…” Kolivan nodded, looking thoughtful.  

“It makes sense, if you look at the size of him.”  Antok offered.  “Perhaps the one with Galra blood knew he would be small, compared to a full-blooded Galra.”  

Keith sighed in frustration.  “We’ve been over this.  I am a perfectly average height for a human.  Look, right in the middle.”  He waved a hand, gesturing to the other human paladins around them.

“Even if that were true,” Kolivan said to Antok, ignoring Keith.  “Wouldn’t his parent with Galra blood know of the great importance of names?  Why would they bestow a name so… well, challenging for an adult to go by?”

Keith paused.  “Challenging?”  

“The meaning of your name,” Thace explained.  “It’s… well… it could be difficult to get people to take you seriously, as an adult, if you have such a juvenile name.”

“Five minutes ago you didn’t even know what my name meant.”  Keith stared at them.  “Now you can’t take me seriously?  Really?”

“We did not realize the name came from ‘kit’.”  Kolivan said.  “Do you know the meaning of this word?”

Keith thought about it.  “A… baby fox?”  He frowned.  “Why?  Is it an insult, in Galran?”

“Quite the opposite, actually.”  Thace said.  “It seems to line up with your language.  It is an older word for cub, what we call our young.  It is a term of affection that they are called for the first decaphoebe of life, before they are given a name of their own based on their personality.”  

“Essentially, it’s a non-name.”  Antok added.  “It sort of implies your parents didn’t bother to give you a proper name.”  

“Oh.”  Keith deflated as he thought about it.  That… kind of made sense, actually.  He could easily see his mother -- a vague, faceless being he had no memory of -- calling him that for a time, and then disappearing before his first birthday, with his human father thinking that  _ was  _ his name, as Keith wasn’t an uncommon name.  

“So his name basically means ‘baby’?”  Lance asked, barely holding back a grin.  

“Essentially.”  Kolivan nodded.  

Keith groaned and dropped his head into his hands, while Lance laughed uproariously on the other end of the couch at his expense.  “Okay, well, I’m not a baby, I’m an adult tasked with defending the universe, with a name that actually means a place in Scotland.  Can we just go with that?”

“I don’t know where this ‘Scot-land’ is.”  Kolivan huffed.  “I’m more inclined to believe it comes from ‘kit’.”  

“It doesn’t!”  

“It would explain your rashness.”  Antok chuckled.  “And your size.”  

“I am normal-sized, for a human!”  Keith fumed. 

**Author's Note:**

> (BONUS)  
> Antok, bursting through the BoM base’s doors: “GUYS! Guess what we learned about Keith--?”  
> Keith, jumping on his back and trying to muffle him with his hand: “We learned nothing! Shut! Up!” 
> 
> From then on, it becomes a running joke among the Blades that they have to protect their little adopted kit. The Blades find this hilarious. Keith, not so much (but he does find it a bit touching, sometimes)
> 
> "Resources" (if you will)  
> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keith_(given_name)>  
> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keith_(surname)>  
> [https://www.houseofnames.com/keith-family-crest ](https://www.houseofnames.com/keith-family-crest%0A)


End file.
